Canned Carrott

Canned Carrott is a comedy stand-up and sketch-show by Jasper Carrott. It gave rise to a spin-off series, and made the names of regular contributors Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis.

Canned Carrott
Genre	Comedy
Written by	Paul Alexander Jasper Carrott Hugh Dennis Steven Knight Steve Punt Mike Whitehill
Directed by	Ed Bye
Starring	Jasper Carrott
Theme music composer	Peter Griffiths Keith Strachan Matthew Strachan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12 (+ 6 specials)
Production
Executive producer	Paul Smith
Producer	Ed Bye
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Celador Productions
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	3 October 1990 (1990-10-03) – 26 August 1995 (1995-08-26)

Two of the regular sketches were "Wiggy" and "The Detectives". "Wiggy" followed the adventures of a man with an unconvincing wig (played by Carrott). It was a slapstick comedy in which the characters were silent except for the narrator, similar in style to Mr. Bean or The Benny Hill Show.

The most popular sketch segment was "The Detectives", featuring two mediocre police officers, Briggs and Louis (played by Carrott and Robert Powell), who tried unsuccessfully to emulate the actions of television detectives. Such was the popularity of this sketch that it became the basis of another television comedy series, The Detectives.

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis subsequently joined the cast of The Mary Whitehouse Experience, and later got their own sketch show, called The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show, which ran for two series.

Cast

• Jasper Carrott – Himself/Various Characters (including Bob Louis in "The Detectives" and Wiggy)
• Hugh Dennis – Various Characters
• Nosher Powell
• Robert Powell – Dave Briggs (segment "The Detectives")
• Steve Punt – Various Characters
• Enn Reitel – Narrator (segment "Wiggy") (voice)
• George Sewell – Supt Cottam (segment "The Detectives")

Transmissions

• Series 1: 6 episodes, 3 October 1990 to 7 November 1990
• Specially Selected Canned Carrott: 3 and 10 September 1991
• Series 2: 6 episodes, 21 November 1991 to 2 January 1992
• More Specially Selected Canned Carrott: 15 September 1992
• The Juicy Bits: 24 May 1994
• More Juicy Bits: 1 July 1995
• Extra Juicy Bits: 26 August 1995

DVD release

In 2011, Canned Carrott received a DVD release comprising all the episodes from the first series. The DVD was titled as ‘Canned Carrott Volume 1’ and inside the DVD Case on the inlay was a promotion stating that Canned Carrott Volume 2 was coming soon, although it was never released.